Ferdinand Piech's 914-8, Video of the car from 10/2025 Options

[Robarabian]

I visited the Porsche Museum in October. Took some video of the 914-8.

It's short but shows some good details.

Robert

https://youtu.be/G5sTmYOuHuA

[dtmehall]

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/beerchug.gif)

[East coaster]

Very cool! It’s missing the trim/beading between the engine lid and grill, oversight, or?

[SirAndy]

Very cool! It’s missing the trim/beading between the engine lid and grill, oversight, or?

It's a hand-built pre-production prototype.
(IMG:style_emoticons/default/shades.gif)

[eric9144]

Interesting lack of head rests on the seats and that fuel filler position under the windshield. I see why @burton73 's car had the fuel flap there now (IMG:style_emoticons/default/beerchug.gif)

[DennisV]

I visited the Porsche Museum in October. Took some video of the 914-8.

It's short but shows some good details.

Thanks for sharing that. Interesting to see the fire extinguisher where the center pad would normally be.

[Steve]

I was there a year ago and saw the 914S. Way cool to see in person. My biggest surprise was that it has less HP than my 3.6.
I read somewhere else that it cornered pretty bad. Is that just a rumor?
But it does only have 195/65 tires.

[SirAndy]

My biggest surprise was that it has less HP than my 3.6.

They were detuned for the two 914/8 street cars.

In racing trim, those engines put out 350HP from 3.0L displacement.
Pretty impressive for the time me thinks.
(IMG:style_emoticons/default/driving.gif)

[wonkipop]

love that bit of roundabout mayhem outside the museum at the start of vid.
good to know germans are as pig headed at roundabouts as aussies when they screw up which lane they are supposed to be in. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

and thanks for the vid views of the 8. what a beast, yet so understated.
you got to love the late 60s. no aero devices! imagine the nose lift on that baby wound out on the autobahn at 1 am in the morning - which is apparently when it was allowed out on the public roads for "testing purposes". clenched teeth and balls of steel i reckon to floor that thing.

and yeah @SirAndy . you are so right. 340-350 hp was nothing to sneeze at in 1969/70.
ferrari daytona had approx the same amount and was claimed to be the fastest car of that era and decade and it was a V12. so piech's little experiment was no slouch - but right out there at the edges of the envelope. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/beerchug.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/beerchug.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/beerchug.gif)
you got to love the germans during that time and in the that place.

even mercedes, just around the corner and down the road a a bit weren't holding back with their C-111. never went into production but boy was that car out there. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/beer.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/beerchug.gif)

[Midway]

A few photographs from when I visited in 2024. Notable detail differences.

[Artfrombama]

Very cool! It’s missing the trim/beading between the engine lid and grill, oversight, or?

It's a hand-built pre-production prototype.
(IMG:style_emoticons/default/shades.gif)

And more than likely not always treated and maintained as a museum piece.

[Root_Werks]

Always cool to see a video of 914-8. There was another one with it running posted a while back.

[HaraldD]

2 nice Cars together... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[JmuRiz]

HaraldD what a great picture, two of my top 10 914s in one shot.

[wonkipop]

gear selector linkage pretty wild on the 8.

think its an adaption of the linkage on the 908, all of which were effectively rhd cars with the gear lever on the right hand sill instead of the centre tunnel. designed for lemans. kind of a weird thing where a left hand drive control position was transposed to the right hand side of the car. ford GT40s were the same. porsche might have even copied ford - not sure.

looks like they added an extra cross bar linkage to join with central mounted gear lever.
gear lever was further back than in a standard 914. interesting. wonder if it shifted better than a production 914 or was worse? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

[wonkipop]

nice photo of the bumper detail @Midway

i recall reading somewhere that in the early design phase of the 914 there was an intention to have "impact absorbing" bumpers. i do not think this was in response to the later USA impact bumper regs. it well predates that. i think it was an idea about the car being able to take parking nudges without damage.

the 8 being a prototype 6 appears to have been built with this concept of a nudge bumper. there are one or two photographs of it when it was a 6 undergoing evaluation testing and it had the bumper then. along with the twin headlights. so probably the same car that later became this 8.



the rubber cap seems to be attached to the body shell and not to the top of the bumper.
would make sense if the bumper is a movable element either on spring mounts or crushable rebound mounts. quite different to the production cars but does explain the indentations which remained in the production cars - the indentations would allow the main bumper to move inwards towards the body before rebounding.

in any case they dropped the idea. i suspect the twin headlights and nudge bumpers were only for the 6. i have seen photos of a prototype 4 from the same batch of first cars that had single headlights and the production bumpers with larger cap attached to top of bumper. makes me think that the early intention for the 6 was to be more upscaled and equipped than the 4. but these differences were dropped before production.

[HaraldD]

Thank you! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/bye1.gif)

HaraldD what a great picture, two of my top 10 914s in one shot.

[wgrzesiak]

I refer to the attached pictures.
The silver car is my 914-6, #42 and the blue is my '75. The "gap" should jump out.

I noticed the 914-8 also does not have the gap which made me curious.

My friend George/Dr914 spotted this when he checked out the -6 a few years ago. He wasn't sure if this was evidence of a repair or if it was possibly a prototype and came out of the factory like this. (George, feel free to chime in if I'm remembering incorrectly).

Wondering if this has been discussed before (I didn't know what to call it to even search the site). And if anyone else has a 914 with the same feature.


This is only my 2nd post as I never really thought I had anything interesting or valuable to contribute. Hopefully this is a worthwhile question.
Regards - Bill

[burton73]

@wgrzesiak
Hi Bill,
If your 6 is number #42 than it is one after mine down the line. I don’t know why your friend George/Dr914 was not sure if it was evidence of repair because my guess is if you run a magnet over that area, you will find body filler.

My Fuel Cal filler is completely custom done by Peter Daw in the late 70s when he worked at Troutman’s
This is the info on it in the Ebay ad when I bought it Dec 27th 2006. This is from Floyd the PO of #41
“I have had many questions about the fuel filler area. Peter Dawe of Dawe's Motorsports helped build this car at Dick Troutmans's in the late 70s. I asked Petr how this was done, below is his answer.”
“Hi Lloyd From what i can remember the hinge and the flush mount latch was aircraft surplus. I believe all those parts are offered thru Aircraft Spruce Co. Peter welded a shaped piece of steel under the body cowl for the gas door to sit on . He also welded a fill pipe on to the gas tank. (Only for pros to weld) Then because of the pipe bends he had to put a vent from the original fill to the neck so the tank could be filled up to the top. All this was 20 years ago but I think thats about it. But you have to be as talented as Peter to do it right. Thats the TRICK. Thanks and happy holidays Petr Dawe”

So now you are in the know.

Best Bob B Burton

[wgrzesiak]

Hi Bob,
#41 is a real beauty. Love the color.


Thanks for the magnet idea. I never thought to check that. So I just did.
On both sides of the car, the magnet stuck to metal the whole length of where the gap would be. Felt the same amount of "pull" no matter where I moved it. So I think no filler. It will remain a mystery unless someone can shed light.


Both of those 914s in my post were obtained in 1978. If anything had happened to the -6, it was in the '70s. I turned 16 the year before and picked up the 2.0L blue one for $2500. My father got the silver-6 the same year. I think around $5k but it was a long time ago. The -6 sat in a garage since 1985 or so and I bought it from Dad in 2010. He doubled his money and we were both happy. I got it back on the road in 2020. It's a real joy to drive.